This invention relates to a method and apparatus for obtaining water suitable for consumption and other use by humans and animals from the exhaust of internal combusion engines.
Generation of potable water is highly desirable in a wide variety of circumstances, such as in arid or contaminated environments, at sea, or in sub-freezing environments. A possible source of water is the water vapor present in the exhaust from internal combustion engines. Most internal combustion engines in use today burn high-grade fuels such as gasoline or diesel. The exhaust stream from these engines is made up primarily of nitrogen, carbon dioxide, and water vapor, with smaller amounts of carbon monoxide, unburned hydrocarbons, and other impurities also present. Analyses of typical exhaust streams indicate that for every gallon of fuel consumed about 1 gallon of water vapor is formed. Recovery of all such water vapor would therefore mean the generation of as much water as fuel consumed for a given engine, while a system capable of recovering only 50 percent of the water vapor in the exhaust stream that consumes, for example, 10 gallons of fuel per hour, would provide about 5 gallons of water per hour.
Previous attempts to recover water from internal combustion engine exhaust have focused on cooling the hot exhaust stream so as to condense the water vapor contained therein. Such attempts have been unsuccessful due to the large amount of energy required to sufficiently cool the exhaust stream, the complexity of the associated refrigeration equipment and, most importantly, due to the highly contaminated nature of the condensed water obtained, thereby requiring extensive post-condensation treatment to render it potable.
There is thus a need for an inexpensive, energy-efficient, simple and practical method and apparatus of obtaining potable water from engine exhaust streams. It is therefore the principal object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus of recovering potable water from internal combustion engine exhaust that meets such requirements. This and other objects are accomplished by the present invention, which is summarized and described in detail below.